#staff lecture

[neo-existential-crisis]

Rory And Mark Wright talk

I arrived comfortably round 9:45 in time for the 10am talk eager to learn about both teacher’s practices. There was a short talk from Jonny Parker which I overall found reassuring. I have found since beginning university there seems to be an unending amount of resources and people to talk to if I am ever in need of help. And another small talk from a graduate who now works in numerous galleries around Liverpool that gave me hope for the future.

Getting onto the talk: Marks side of the lecture was ideas and the practical uses of art and how it can help us to connect more with history as well as each other. I found different parts of Marks lecture very intriguing, I think the whole idea of science, tech and art coming together is kind of revolutionary and can help us in many different ways as Mark was saying in telling new stories and exploring culture more. The final part of Marks talk was a little unnerving it was exploring the idea of swapping bodies with someone else and although the video was interesting it was still unnerving.

Going onto Rory’s side of the lecture he had a different approach, we were shown a slideshow of his art, from his earlier works to his more current ones with him explaining or shortly describing each one and like Marks talk, it opened my mind to all the different kinds of art that is out there. In particular was Rory’s work with books where in one instance he translated an entire book without knowing the language and the other were he more or less just turned popular books into pulp and displayed them which I don’t think I’d ever heard of before but it is a pretty wild idea. Similarly is when he told us how he tried to escape a prison using a bathtub and palm leaf. I think Rory’s talk made it feel like anything was possible and that you should just do it if it feels right to you.

http://www.contemporaryartsociety.org/artist-members/rory-macbeth/

Overall though the lecture I wasn’t sure what notes I needed to be making but I did find it interesting to see the difference between the two practices how one saw art in relation to science and research and the other in a completely different way. 

[neo-existential-crisis]

Peter Appleton & Adam Carr

On this Wednesday lecture it was another staff lecture which I really enjoy as not only does it mean I am meeting more staff members but I am also seeing people who work in the art world and their jobs/work feels attainable compared to the visiting artists who feel very much above where I’m at today out of reach for me.

Between the two Adam Carr was the first to give his talk, he is an independent curator, writer, lecturer and more! though he has a background in fine art. He said he fell into curating ‘accidentally’ though not really as he visited many galleries and museums during his life so it made sense to him that that’s what happened but I found the title of an independent curator interesting simply because I suppose I’d also thought of curators as people attached to a specific gallery or museum. Further through the talk Carr spoke about the work he is doing now and the ideas surrounding them. One that he was talking about that piqued my interest took place in London called ‘Close’ where you walked around using a map to find these artworks, they were aimed directly at a non-gallery audience which I thought was interesting as I also like the idea of public art because not everyone has time to visit galleries as well it may introduce people to art in a way they hadn’t thought of before.

Peter Appleton’s side of the talk had a similar approach to Adm’s in that he went through his work. Compared to Carr’s work it was clearly different, rather than talking about exhibitions and curating it was about his art practise which was sound sculpture. He spoke about the influence of being in a band and oil rigs was on his work and the want to introduce sound. The end result of this being his sound sculptures which I was fascinated with and I think though we could hear them it most likely is great to hear them in person. Through the talk he spoke of the experimentation within his work and I liked the whole idea of translating one thing into another. But overall I think sound and art is a great way to connect to people as I think in general we take in all these sounds around us and to pin point them and exemplify certain sounds is wonderful. 

[neo-existential-crisis]

Patricia MacKinnon-Day & Roy Claire Potter

So the penultimate artist talk was upon us. Today was two staff members, Roy Claire Potter and Patricia Mackinnon who I’d heard of when we visited her Calling Sheds which are currently at the Tate Exchange. I always like to see how the speakers approach their lectures, approach the prompt Rory has given them and today was no different though you do notice a more distinct difference between the lectures when they follow each other rather than when they’re a week apart.

Roy Claire Potters work was different to what I’d seen before though the whole idea of ‘restricted methods of production and material’ made sense once you saw the work. Overall their work felt very personal and intimate and in some ways hard to watch because of the intimate nature but also due to the restricted methods making it harder for them that all in all made you want to help them as they performed. I did like the many aspects of the work though such as how one part of it was the written piece then you had the performance aspect of it that would mean that every time it was performed it would be different.

 One idea that Potter touched on that spoke to me was the idea of Power dynamics and the undercutting of the idea of confidence which made me think of power dynamics in art between the viewer and artworks, the viewer and the artist. Another would be the mention that they have started to do more closing events than opening events as it’s a less celebratory audience and people will often come to see the work more than whatever ‘festivities are going on’. 

Comparatively Mackinnon had a different approach to her lecture there was a bit of backstory, with her past work then  

I always appreciate the different tid-bits about what it’s like to work in the art-world how things are manoeuvred and the truth about what goes on in galleries and different sorts of art spaces. Such as when Roy Claire talked about funding that it will often be outside sources that will fund a project or galleries and how art is sometimes created for a specific exhibition rather than on the fly as I imagine it is.

[hdaviesreflectiveblog]

Staff Lecture - Cecila Garside

Lecture - 20th November

  Seel’s lecture gave us a set of rules that she uses herself. Firstly though, she gave us an insight to her experience, which includes; being a designer, illustrator, internet designer, project manager and research assistant. Basically, the woman has no bounds to the subjects she has some kind of knowledge about within the design world. Here are the rules, which have given me more to think about than just the work:


 1- Always carry a sketchbook


Other people have mentioned this and though I do always have a sketchbook, I never really use it unless I’m in my room – that is certainly going to change.

Rule 2 - Don’t be precious about a sketchbook


I personally am not sure how I feel about this rule. Although I don’t necessarily keep every page of my sketchbooks neat and I do use a few pages randomly, I like to have a planned drawing on the page, not too much randomness. Though Seel showed us examples of her sketchbooks and they were filled with sketches of things that are from her everyday life. The quick sketches were even used in an exhibition called Seen and Unseen.

Rule 3 - Experiment


After deciding to experiment with pen and ink, Seel ended up developing a typeface called ‘Crumbs’. The typeface can be found at www.beaufonts.com.

Rule 4- Be inspired by other people

This was emphasized throughout the lecture – research. It’s something I definitely need to start doing. I will start noting down any designers or artists or even work that influences me so I can reference back to it when I need to.

Rule 5 - Set additional restrictions and limitations

Seel does this with her work by only using one colour at times, or even giving herself a time limit. She did this with one of her projects by creating a music night poster in one day. I could never do that. I’d stress far too much!

Rule 6 - Be inspired by your surroundings

I like to believe I do this at least part of the time. I usually always notice if I walk past something, which I find fascinating. But I think I should start photographing or sketching some of the things I see - Quick, immediate inspiration right there.

Rule 7 - Collect things

Seel is a slight hoarder with things she collects but it came useful in one project where she created numbers using objects she had found. They were then used in a David Crow book.

Rule 8 - Don’t sit with a blank page in front of you

This is what I usually do for at least half an hour if I’m stuck. Then I end up drawing eyes…I guess that’s better than a blank page! Sometimes I need a blank page though.

Rule 9 - Eat the frog

Aka: Grasp the moment, don’t think about it.

It’s a quote by Mark Twain and definitely something amusing to remember, but also quite inspiring! 

[tahawkinsgdandi-blog]

Jon Spencer Staff Lecture

There was a lot of interesting ideas within Jon's staff lecture. Cataloguing and the storing of information is something that arose many times in his lecture which resonated with me as organisation is something I really enjoy and I can be quite systematic with it.

The catalogue of Letraset fonts is the first thing that caught my attention as for a child, it is quite a heavy task. However, it shows clear roots for his love of typography as we as his presentation of ideas.

The second thing that I really enjoyed was the notion of using Moire to develop a system of type, where it was reliant as to its position and quantity in order to produce individual letterforms. Although, I preferred it when he took it one step further and overlaid very simple visual letter forms in order to influence the overlay of lines into a conscious and visual letter.

When moving into a new house, he decided to create a book about the interior decoration (having not been decorated for decades) and using a scanner to capture these details. However, it is not this that captured me, it was the book itself, with its mismatch of stock which included colour changes as well as size. This alongside its subject of staggered decoration really helps to develop thoughts and ideas of my own when bookbinding.

[hdaviesreflectiveblog]

Staff Lecture – Jon Spencer

13th November 2013

  The lecture was began by Jon mentioning his grandfather’s interest in type and how he has the traits of him, and I always like to hear when family have an interest passed on because then the person develops a knowledge for the particular subject early on, usually. This interest in type started at a young age and Jon explained how, as a child, he’d draw bits of type from a catalogue of typefaces. All of a sudden my hours I spent as a child re-drawing pictures from magazines and learning how to draw horses anatomy-correct don’t seem so unusual. Jon’s sister had a magazine, ‘Groove’ which suggests that his sister also inherited his grandfather’s traits.

A lot of Jon’s work saw him use free materials to create publishing project. It made interesting outcomes and I think the use of miss-match stock gave him quite a personal style, which he showed with another of his projects. It means that his work has quite an unusual structure but it’s still very systematic. I really liked his books but the back of my mind couldn’t cope with the miss-match pages because they didn’t equally line up (a little OCD there..).

A book, which Jon created, which documented surfaces in his house using a scanner, was really interesting. He only printed on one side so there were blank pages, which to me would be a really difficult challenge. But he came up with the rather clever idea of putting inserts within the blank pages, which had a timeline of occupants on it. Though I must say the bright yellow colour was quite…bold!

  Here’s an inspiring quote from Jon himself, “If you’ve got an ambitious idea – find a way to make it happen.”

  Finally, it’s simple not simplistic!

[hdaviesreflectiveblog]

Staff lecture - Chris Brown

Lecture  - 9th October 2013

The lecture held by Chris Brown was particularly interesting as it showed that he has a great deal of experience in a range of arts subjects, but especially his preferred profession of lino cut illustrations.

He spoke a lot about his influences, which ranged a lot from childhood books, including Pookie, Rupert Bear and the Ladybird books, I’m assuming this is where he first found his love for illustration. Another of his influences is fairground art- art by craftsmen, it’s nice to enjoy work that has been created with time and effort and passion so I can understand why he appreciates such work. He shared his love for miniature art, as he explained, you can “create a world you want to be a part of’, which was quite a nice thing to hear as I did my BTEC FMP around that kind of idea of having your own separate worlds.

Some of Chris’ past work includes writing for the Sunday Times, for the menswear section – this establishes his interest in fashion.  He has designed fabrics for Japan, created book covers from lino prints and illustrated the Periodic Table for The Guardian. He also created his own book ‘An alphabet of London’ and is now working on another book ‘An alphabet of England’. One achievement of his which is probably one of his biggest and one which I find brilliant, is that he was in the final three selected to rebrand all of the Harry Potter books. From the cover he showed us, I think his Harry Potter book covers would have worked wonderfully.

He made the point that “people buy your style” when you are an illustrator and that slightly re-enforced the reason I don’t believe I am or could be an illustrator (I believe I’m a designer) because although drawing is my favourite possible thing, my ‘style’ is just realistic and I don’t think that would make for a good illustrator because people don’t want realistic illustrations – that’s not an individual style. Chris’ own style is primarily linocuts using limited colours, his favourites being red, yellow, blue, green and brown. He also stated that he mixes his own colours which is something which makes the work you create more personal, I believe, because it’s very difficult for someone else to mix the exact same colour as you.

All in all, I found that Chris Brown has a very distinct style with his illustrations, and he seemed to have a lot of fun with them, and it seems like really enjoys what he does.  It was a very interesting lecture and I really enjoyed seeing his own. The most influential quote from Chris, during the lecture “Design is a process. First understand…ask questions”.

[tahawkinsgdandi-blog]

Chris Brown Staff Lecture

In the lecture by Chris Brown, he speaks of his journey from school to today and the many different paths that he goes down. 

Beginning by working with designer and illustrator Edward Bawden upon coming out of university, Bawden is a massive influence to Brown especially in his work of using a limited palette as well as the way he makes up his lines in his work. Bawden also influenced Brown to begin experimenting with Linocutting.

His work changed over time allowed him to look back and use his older work from school to further help him in his present work. It is the idea of perfecting your style and then allowing it to develop over time.

One of his works I particularly enjoyed looking into was his book titled 'An Alphabet Of London' and his composition of images against the strong bold letters printed on the page. I particularly enjoyed his describing his design process and how he begins his idea quite roughly and image by image perfects it further allowing him to further integrate other characters and features into his work before a final image is produced. 

"Limitation gives you more freedom".

The strong stokes that help create the characters is something I particularly like, with minimal facial detail on some being the key to keeping the characters very recognizable within the image. 

This is a book I actually like so much that I purchased it and shall actually use as inspiration as I continue to develop my design approach and outcomes.